Drive-in, not dine-in, on restaurants' menu in times of social distancing

In a socially distanced world, cars are the new “bio-bubbles”—not just to drive safely to work but also for dining out as a spike in known coronavirus infections have pushed India’s caseload to the second-highest in the world, with the count growing to 43.7 lakh on September 10.

In Delhi and its suburbs, popular restaurants are building drive-through passages, allowing diners to pick up their orders and eat in the safety of their cars or homes.

"People are pre-ordering and having food in their cars outside the outlets and this has become quite popular. The drive-through and the pre-order takeaway is becoming a new trend or culture that we are seeing," said Sagar Daryani, founder and CEO of Tiger Global-backed Wow Momo.

Takeaways, which earlier accounted for about 10 percent of the business, had gone up to 25 percent, Daryani said.

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Delhi is among several states to have eased restrictions on dining in but the fear of closed air-conditioned spaces, which health experts warn can spread the coronavirus, has seen diners go for their next best option—a drive-through or a takeaway.

Takeaways have seen an uptick, with many restaurants claiming that 10-20 percent of their business is coming from this segment. Along with hotels, restaurants have been hit the hardest by the lockdown and are looking to reinvent the dining experience to keep customers safe and the business going.

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Noida-based restaurant tech solutions startup DineOut has tied up with more than 5,000 outlets, including popular pan-Asian restaurant chain Mamagoto, Farzi Café, which offer fusion food, and multi-cuisine Cafe Delhi Heights across the country to help them with takeaways with a new addition in its app. It now allows customers to pre-order and pick up the food from restaurants.

Several DLF-owned shopping malls in the national capital region have also set up drive-through windows. "Since July people are willing to come to the store but are not willing to enter and be in a crowded place," Daryani said.

With diners staying away, around 40 percent of restaurants were staring at closure, Zomato said in a report in August. In its State of the Restaurant Industry in India report, the online food delivery startup said only 17 percent of restaurants were functional. Of the remaining 83 percent, 10 percent had shutdown and another 30 percent, too, could go out of business.

Zomato, which also offers a self pick-up option for customers, said the orders in the segment had picked up almost 70 percent in the last few months. "Since the packaging requirements are similar to delivery, most restaurants optimise their delivery menus for pickup as well," a Zomato spokesperson said.

Besides working with restaurant aggregators, Wow Momo is also taking takeaway orders through WhatsApp.

Restaurants were safer than grocery stores but people were still hesitant to dine-in, Zorawar Kalra, founder of Massive Restaurants told Moneycontrol.

Before the outbreak, many upmarket restaurants eschewed home delivery and takeaways but that the outbreak has changed that.

"Earlier in our restaurants, we never took delivery in a big way because ours is all about the experience but now around 10 percent of the business is coming from takeaways while another 10 percent is being contributed by deliveries," Kalra said.

His Massive Restaurants company runs upmarket eateries such as Farzi Cafe. The company is now experimenting with premium delivery and takeaway-only concepts and plans to launch new brands.

"Dine-in will always be predominant for all restaurants but delivery and takeaway will gain more prominence and take a larger part of the revenue pie," he said.

While Kalra refused to talk about prices, many restaurant owners said they were looking at reduced pricing. Since there is no service or real-estate cost involved, restaurants can pass on the cost benefits to consumers.

The concept of bio-bubble has gained a lot of tractions as cricket, football and other sporting activities resume. Events are being held in empty stadiums or with limited audience and sportspersons are being kept in a safe and secure environment sealed off from the outside world to protect them from the pesky virus.

Though debate rages over the effectiveness of bio-bubbles in sports, cars, for now, seem to be working for diners as well as restaurants.